The Plutonian Chronicles, Prologue

- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -
    I would like to give credit to the following individuals: Harry Schwenk, John McCain (not the US senator), Salvador Ortega, Gerrit Ribbens, "Sir Mildred Pierce" (real name unknown), Eric "Stargazer" Gillespie, Jose Pablo Luna Sanchez, Greg Burch, Andy McSorely, and Martin Schweiger. While the basic story is my idea, these individuals created a series of simulated space vessels for a computer program called Orbiter (created by Schweiger) on which the spacecraft in this novel are based. The names of the characters, with the exception of a few characters including Izzy Cellini and Yuri Komarov, were created by Pierce. Also, the names of the fictional corporations were created by McSorely and Pierce. I would also like to thank such sci-fi luminaries as Arthur Clarke, Gene Roddenberry (yes, I'm a total Star Trek fan), Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, J. Michael Straczynski, Rob Heinlein, and all the rest. Their works inspired me to write this novel, and I hope to live up to them. Finally , I would like to thank Greek synthesizer musician Evangelos Papathanissiou, known to the world as Vangelis, whose works I often listened to while writing this novel, giving me inspiration.

- DEDICATION -
To my dear, sweet Kiera, the beautiful and intelligent young woman who became my first love.

- Introduction
The 22nd Century -

    The 22nd century was the beginning of a new era of humanity. The era of decisions that would decide the future of the species. Decisions that would span the entire solar system and alter their destiny forever. But first, let's see what led up to these circumstances in the first place.

    The last 100 years were turbulent times. While some countries did fairly well, including Canada, Russia, Japan, much of Europe, and even some previously developing nations elsewhere, things did not go well in the United States. In the early part of the century, the USA, under the leadership of President Rip Thornby became increasingly imperialistic and militaristic. By 2026, they had declared war on the nation of Iraq. The purpose of the war was little more than to seize the nation's petroleum, but things soon went way out of control. Soon, the two nations were at each other's throats, with the Iraqis fighting desperately to protect themselves from a potential occupation.

    Meanwhile, the American economy was failing. The year 2032 was particularly bad, when the Dow Jones stock exchange dropped nearly 80% over a 24-hour period, and one stock was completely eliminated - a major media magnate known as the Watkins-Dytallix Corporation*. Many Americans, however, considered this collapse inevitable, given the corporation's bad reputation for unethical business practices and sentient rights abuses, having devolved into a twisted parody of its former self and giving it an almost cult-like character. These practices included abuse of copyright laws, suppression of dissent, criminal behaviour of its core members, and the alleged murder by poisoning of a former employee named Alex Ramirez in an attempt to prevent her from testifying against them in 2024.

    Ramirez was a singer employed by the corporation's record label who had been attempting to expose their abuses to public scrutiny, particularly the fact that she had been forced to lip-synchronize over another vocalist's recordings - without her knowledge and despite her reputation as a talented performer. The cover story claimed that Ramirez had died in a house fire, as the killers had attempted to destroy the body and all other evidence by way of immolation. The corporation's reputation had taken such a beating, in fact, that the general public reaction to its demise was one of relief rather than mourning. In addition to this egregious corporate failure, the US dollar was gradually reduced in value, with $1,500 in 2010 being worth $15,000,000 in 2100.

    In 2052, a ceasefire was declared in Iraq, but for diplomatic reasons the war did not officially end for another forty years. The United States changed its name to the Federated States of America, or FSA, in 2076, believing the old name to have been permanently tarnished by the events of the previous decades, no longer being associated with freedom and democracy, but with imperialism and exploitation. The economic damage, however, meant that their territory was limited to the Lower Forty-Eight, Alaska, and Hawaii. All of their previous territories either became independent or now belonged to other nations. For example, Johnston Atoll became home to a large international spaceport.

    Despite the turmoil, many scientific advances were made in the 21st century. Space travel became more common, and by the end of the century, the inner solar system was colonized, with the exception of Venus, which many considered totally unreachable, due to its atmospheric contents. Among these colonies was Kaloris Kosmodrome, a Russian-built launch centre and scientific outpost located on Mercury. Additionally, a series of fuel stations were constructed across  the inner system.

    The stations resembled advertisement-laden cylinders with a large sphere at the top painted with the space station's number, as well as solar panels on the sides of the cylindrical section. There were also two other space stations in orbit around Earth at the time, namely the Aurora Science Station and the "Big Wheel". The Aurora Station was a long, slender cylinder with a small sphere at the front, a three-spoked centrifuge, and six solar panels and an X-shaped metal beam structure on the back, while the "Big Wheel" was exactly that - a massive wheel, fifteen kilometers in diameter, with five spokes that connected to a central structure.

    There was also a class of spacecraft that was quite popular - an American vessel called the Boeing B-4070 Unity. The Unity had the same colouration as the old Space Shuttle, but was much sleeker, lacking a tail and having a fairly flattened design, as well as hover thrusters. It was not always reliable, especially when compared to its competitors such as the Airbus A3600. Unmodified Unity shuttles were known to occasionally suffer minor malfunctions such as short circuits and blown fuses. Fortunately these bugs were generally not fatal per se, merely inconvenient. Many insurance companies, among them the FSA's GEICO Spacecraft Insurance, existed to protect pilots and passengers of these spacecraft.

    Predictably, the Federated States of America did not always get it so well when it came to space travel. The failure rate among American vessels was about 44%, as opposed to the 0.6% failure rate of Russian spacecraft. It sometimes became a ritual for officials at NASA - an organization that had only barely survived the economic collapse - to bet on whether or not a vessel would succeed in its mission or fail.

    In 2092, an American vessel called the Helios HETV, or High Energy Transit Vehicle, was launched, with the intent of exploring the outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and possibly eventually Pluto. Although it was intended for purely scientific purposes, it was still fitted with a computer-controlled drone gun system as a security measure. A microwave laser had been planned, but was scrapped due to the cost. Four years later, however, contact was lost when the Helios entered orbit over Titan. An investigation was inconclusive.

    In 2098, ten of the major space powers - the FSA, Canada, Russia, Japan, China, Brazil, Korea, India, Australia, and Europe - began work on Project Vespucci. The intent was to colonize Pluto and eventually the rest of the outer solar system, as the outer system potentially held the future to the human species, given that the inner system had already been colonized, and to determine the technological and financial feasibility of doing so. The first three attempts failed, however. The first Vespucci, or Vespucci-A, was completed but contained a major flaw in its environmental systems - the atmospheric filters had a bizarre tendency to suck in interstellar material rather than expel it. Shortly before its scheduled demolition, however, the Vespucci-A suddenly disappeared without a trace. The subsequent dismissal of several Vespucci Project directors only fueled media suspicion in the inner Solar System.

    The Vespucci-B failed when a spark ignited the contents of one of its propellant tanks, causing an explosion which in turn caused it to crash into Earth, and the Vespucci-C was never completed, due to lack of funds. The materials of the Vespucci-C were sold, and the result was enough money to build a new Vespucci. This new Vespucci, the Vespucci-D, was completed in December 2100. Over the next few months, a crew was selected, and by April 2101, the ship was ready to depart. Although it took much trouble to get built, many were sure that the Vespucci-D's mission would succeed. And that's where our tale begins...

*Name changed to protect the innocent